


How Tang Yi got his name

by issen4



Category: HIStory 3: 圈套 | HIStory 3: Trapped, HIStory3 - 圈套 | HIStory3: Trap
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2020-08-23 20:30:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20215084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/issen4/pseuds/issen4
Summary: AU: Li Li Zhen discovers who Tang Guo Dong's new protege really is, and takes steps.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is it, the evil!Tang Guo Dong AU that ends with Tang Yi and Shao Fei meeting in police academy.

"Your mother is Li Li Zhen?" said Meng Shao Fei after he had finished choking out the tea from his nostrils and wiping snot from his face. Tang Yi averted his eyes. There were some sights that even a boyfriend would find too disgusting.

"_That_ Li Li Zhen? Senior Superintendent Li Li Zhen of the Taipei City station?" Shao Fei went on, his voice squeaking in his excitement. "The one who single-handedly destroyed Xing Tian Meng?"

It sounded like Shao Fei had met his hero. "I wouldn't say 'single-handedly'," Tang Yi muttered. He'd helped her from the inside! Even if she'd covered up his involvement later so he'd never be linked with the gangster world. "She had help."

Shao Fei waved his contributions off with a sweep of his arm. "Nah, they were just supporting her," he said. "She was the one who dug up every bit of incriminating evidence, wasn't she? She was the one who planned for all of Xing Tian Meng's leaders to be arrested in one fell swoop. She found incontrovertible evidence against their boss, Tang Guo Dong. She was promoted three times above her previous rank for that, and she's still breaking records for being promoted so quickly. They say even the other gangs give her a width berth, she's that awesome."

Any more gushing, and Tang Yi was going to get a towel for Shao Fei to mop up his drool.

"And she's your mother," Shao Fei said in hushed tones.

"Yeah?"

Shao Fei breathed in admiration for a while longer, then finally, his composure reasserted itself. "But you are Li Tang Yi. This means you take her surname," he pointed out.

"So?"

Tang Yi knew that Shao Fei had deduced that his mother had not been married to his father. Were this thirty, twenty years ago, most people would have felt that there was something shameful about his mother having a child out of wedlock. Tang Yi, of course, didn’t see it that way. 

"So nothing," Shao Fei said. "I didn't think she was old enough to have a son your age. I thought you were her relative, like a cousin or something. You two look a bit alike."

Tang Yi snorted. "How can you tell that when you've never even met her?"

"I have pictures of her, from the news reports." Shao Fei had stars in his eyes again, like that of a teenage boy seeing his idol. It has sometimes hard to believe that Shao Fei was even older than Tang Yi (he'd graduated from university before deciding that he wanted to be a policeman). Most of the other recruits, like Tang Yi, had joined right out of high school.

It was going to be amusing to see Shao Fei's head explode. Metaphorically speaking, of course. "Well, we're allowed to go back home for the mid-autumn break. Would you like to go back with me, and meet her?"

Shao Fei's eyes widened so much that it looked as though his eyeballs were going to pop out. "Really?" he exclaimed, loud enough that the patrons in the other tables turned towards them with frowns.

"Unless you're going home yourself," Tang Yi added belatedly. Even now, he sometimes forgot that other people had families that they grew up with, families that they saw regularly. Most of the other recruits at the academy had been making plans that whole morning for the return trip back to their homes, everyone excited about getting away from their demanding instructors for the next four days. Tang Yi had finally dragged Shao Fei out to the on-campus café to avoid all the questions about where he was going.

Shao Fei shook his head. "Nope. My mum's going to be in Hong Kong helping my sister with the baby," he said. "They don't need me there, I'd just get in the way. I was planning on staying here."

This was the most Shao Fei had ever said about his family. "It's just your mother and sister?" Tang Yi asked. Shao Fei had mentioned his older sister a few times, but not his parents.

"Yeah. My sister went to work in Hong Kong after graduation, and got married there. My dad passed away just before I started university," Shao Fei said, sobering for a moment, then focused his attention on Tang Yi. "Erm, your dad-" he began, then shook his head, reddening, "erm, nothing! Pretend I said nothing."

Tang Yi wondered if he had been scowling without realising it. The topic of fathers inevitably did that to him, starting with his adopted father, then Tang Guo Dong whom he'd taken as a father figure, only to for- no, not going into that now. Finally, there was Chen Wen Hao. Reformed gangster, he had said. Tang Yi scoffed inwardly. Looking at Shao Fei's worried face, he unbent enough to say, "My birth father's alive," he said. "I see him once in a while," usually only after his mother's repeated requests. "Otherwise it's just my mother and Hong Ye." He'd told Shao Fei lots about Hong Ye, anyway, enough for Shao Fei to declare himself lucky that he had an older sister and not a younger one.

"Oh." Somehow, Shao Fei had found that Tang Yi's home situation was not exactly common, even though Tang Yi had done his best to keep things quiet. (Probably _because_ he kept things too quiet. Shao Fei pounced on mysteries like a cat on a butterfly.) But Shao Fei always followed Tang Yi's lead to let things be, even when his instincts said otherwise. Part of the reason Tang Yi had let Shao Fei into his heart so quickly.

"It's okay, I'm not bothered."

Shao Fei still looked dismayed so Tang Yi couldn't help but pull him close. One of the best things about Shao Fei's impulsive nature was how easily he was distracted with a kiss, and Tang Yi exploited that to the full. 

*** 

Perhaps not shockingly, Shao Fei and his mother got on like a house on fire. Both of them were passionate about justice, believed in protecting the innocent and spent their free time geeking out on cold cases. Before the day was out, Shao Fei, who had been apprehensive about being introduced as Tang Yi's boyfriend, was raving about "Li Zhen-jie" in every other sentence, unable to stop even though it was past midnight.

"You can't call her Li Zhen-jie, she's my mother," Tang Yi said, though he wasn't expecting anything he said to dampen Shao Fei's enthusiasm by even an iota. At least Shao Fei wasn't pacing up and down the room in excitement; he had consented to cuddle on the sofabed beside Tang Yi. "It sounds weird."

"He should call me Auntie instead?" his mother interrupted, and both of them jumped to their feet, separating in a hurry. Except that Shao Fei promptly lost his balance and Tang Yi had to grab him by the waist to ensure he didn't fall flat on his face.

"Ma," he said in protest.

"Tang," she said.

"The two of you even _sound_ alike," Shao Fei marvelled, once he had extricated himself. "Li Zhen-jie, I-" he thumbed his nose cheekily at Tang Yi's glare, "wanted to ask you about Xing Tian Meng."

His mother, to her credit, didn't look at Tang Yi. "What about Xing Tian Meng?"

"Well, it was one of your first big cases, wasn't it?" Shao Fei began, "but all this time we've talked, you've hardly even mentioned it. It's a case that I'm really curious about-" He eyed Tang Yi. "And Tang Yi always goes quiet whenever I mention it."

Tang Yi suffered the indignity of having his mother look knowingly at him, as though he was a teenager again.

His mother had a very faint smile for him, then turned to regard Shao Fei thoughtfully. "That's because it hit close to home for me," she said.

Shao Fei, no dummy, looked from her to Tang Yi. "Something to do with Tang Yi? Since Tang Yi came to live with you after you broke the case."

"Wait. How did you know that?" Tang Yi asked. 

"How did you know that?" his mother echoed. 

"Well," Shao Fei rubbed his nose, "Tang Yi never talks about living in Taipei as a child, or going to school here…"

His mother nodded with a little 'go on' lift of her chin.

"… and that time we volunteered at a children's home, he said something about staying in an orphanage. I didn't think much of it at first, but I got to thinking…"

"What else?"

Shao Fei looked shifty. "…and I may have casually talked to the neighbours? They said you moved here with Tang Yi and Hong Ye a few years ago. It was when Tang Yi was still in high school. That was when the news about Xing Tian Meng came out."

Tang Yi was annoyed at how sneaky his boyfriend was. Just because he didn't want to say-

His mother nodded, however. "You'll make a good cop someday, Shao Fei," she said.

"Thanks, Li Zhen-jie!" Shao Fei looked giddy at praise from his idol. After a moment, though, he frowned. "So I was right? Tang Yi was in an orphanage, but came to live with you when he was sixteen."

"Wrong!" Tang Yi said.

"There're a few missing parts," his mother said. "Tang Yi has had an eventful life."

"Ma!" She made it sound so dramatic.

"And those missing parts have to do with Xing Tian Meng," Shao Fei deduced.

"Some of it."

"Oh." Rather than Tang Yi expected, Shao Fei did not look gleeful at being right. "It must not have been easy to be reunited after so long," he said. 

To Tang Yi's surprise, his mother nodded. "There were many complications," she said to him, glancing at Tang Yi, "one of which was Xing Tian Meng."

"Oh." Now Shao Fei was starting to look confused. "But-"

"And that part concerns Tang Yi," his mother went on. "Actually, it explains why he's called Tang Yi at all."

"Ma-"

"Which I will leave him to tell you, if he feels like doing so," his mother said. 

Shao Fei looked chastened. "Yes, Li Zhen-jie."

His mother gave them a faint smile. "And you can continue calling me Li Zhen-jie until the two of you actually get married." She left the guest bedroom. "Good night."

/tbc


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The sequence of events will jump around a bit, due to flashbacks

Tang Yi knew that it was a dream… or was it really a dream when you were only recalling the past, your mind frantically trying to reconstruct every detail while simultaneously rejecting everything that crossed the back of your eyelids? 

He could still smell the stale cold air, mixed with the stink of vomit on the corner and the urine from the alley. The jacket he was wearing was two sizes bigger, scratchy and uncomfortable, but he hardly dared to take it off while he waited, though not for long. As he expected, now that it was nearly dawn, the group of young bikers were crowding out of the seedy little bar, jostling and shouting insults at one another, with two of them leaning by the side of the exit to throw up, before slowly making their way down to the main road.

Tang Yi had grabbed George Leung as the group meandered past his hiding spot, knowing that the rest of them would not notice him. At least not yet, unless George gave the alarm.

Surprisingly, unlike the rest of his companions, George was sober: the smell of beer and cigarette smoke surrounded him like a cloak that he had drawn around himself for camouflage, but his eyes were bright despite the hour. He had tensed at Tang Yi's action, but he had identified Tang Yi almost immediately, and the arm that had come up in a defensive move lowered slowly. His eyes were narrowed, giving his face an even more suspicious cast in the yellowed light from the streetlamps. "Tang Yi," he said. "What the hell?"

Without answering, Tang Yi had dragged him further into the alley, glad that George did not resist: the other teen was older and taller, and Tang Yi wasn't strong enough to take him by force. Once he was sure they were out of earshot of... everyone, he had pulled George close. "Warn your family," he whispered. "Tang-ye is planning something."

George's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? I haven't seen you in weeks, what's going on? My dad's been talking to some strange people. And do you know what happened to Andy?"

Tang Yi shook his head. "Don't- don't ask me. Just warn your family."

"What d'you mean?" George didn't look bewildered, though. It was as though Tang Yi's warning was within his expectations. His father was a small-time gang leader, running private betting rings and holding illegal motorbike races just outside Taipei. They dealt in Ecstasy on the side, but none of the hard drugs. Tang Yi had got to know him a few years ago; everyone wanted to know the young protégé of Tang-ye's, but he and George had hit it off, not least after they came to the rescue of a kid who was getting beaten up outside a bar that one time. 

_Andy_. His father owned a chain of bars at the outskirts of Taipei.

"You know what happened to Andy, right?" George said, clearly catching something in Tang Yi's expression.

_"They killed my family!"_

Tang-ye was on an expansion drive of Xing Tian Meng's territory, but Andy's family had resolutely refused to sell their bars, so Tang-ye had made his plans. Tang Yi had heard about it only after Tang-ye had taken action, and he was sickened to the depths of his soul. He had felt like throwing up, walking into Tang-ye's meeting room, seeing the triumphant looks on the Xing Tian Meng members who had been part of it, not even hiding their bloodstained clothes. Wary about Tang-ye's reaction, he had done his best to hide his disgust. It was absolutely insane how Tang-ye took his stoic expression for approval and had even tasked him with the clean-up. But Tang Yi had taken the opportunity to search surreptitiously for Andy.

"He's fine." But he couldn't shake off the memory of Andy's whitened face, shock and guilt mixed with ever more grief. 

_"I should have been there. Just because Dad said I couldn't go out with- I ran away and left them!"_

_"If you'd stayed, they would have killed you too!" He shook Andy, not certain whether it was despair or helpless anger that moved him. "Get out of here!"_

"He's in hiding. He's the only one left of his family, and Tang-ye is after him."

George paled. Older though he was, like some of the younger scions of the gangs in Taipei, Tang Yi knew that George had never imagined that gang incursions could be so deadly. Tang-ye was known to be ruthless, but an outright attack was unimaginable to them. Tang Yi, though, knew very well what Tang-ye was capable of. 

"Shit." 

Tang Yi took a breath. "I'm trying to get him out of Taipei," he said. 

"I'll help," George said immediately.

Tang Yi had looked at him. "Take care of yourself first," he said.

"I can help," George insisted. "Where is he?"

Tang Yi remembered studying him, his serious expression, the dawning realisation that the danger was real. "He's in Haiyi," he told George.

The bar, though not particularly significant, was right inside Si He territory, owned by an affiliate of ____ which was in turn linked to ____, one of the biggest mafia groups in Hong Kong. Drugs flowed freely, as did contraband guns, and even cops steered clear of the place. It was the safest place Tang Yi could think of, at least for the time being. 

"He's where?!" 

"Xing Tian Meng won't think about looking for him there," Tang Yi said. 

"All right," George said, frowning in thought. He stiffened suddenly and narrowed his eyes at Tang Yi. "How do I know that you aren't trying to trick me? Maybe Tang-ye sent you to test us." 

Tang Yi had felt himself pale, though he did his best not to back down. Even though George's father had, over the years, given many protestations of loyalty to Xing Tian Meng, together with the concessions from the Ecstasy profits, most people knew that it was only a matter of time before Tang-ye took drastic action. 

"Well?"

"I'm not," he said. But fear made his voice cold.

"He's your adopted father," George pointed out. 

"Doesn't mean I'm on his side."

George studied Tang Yi, then abruptly, Tang Yi had seen the moment when George decided to trust him. 

A few years ago, the Taipei underworld had been rocked by the news that Tang Guo Dong had adopted a boy from the streets. Everyone had wondered why he did so and when it turned out that he was intent on grooming Tang Yi, as he came to be known, to be his successor, there was even more of a furore within Xing Tian Meng. But Tang Guo Dong would not budge, instead pointing out that his previous sworn brother, Chen Wen Hao, had been released from prison recently and that he regarded Tang Guo Dong as his sworn enemy, so he needed someone trustworthy. Who better than a boy from the street, a smart kid who would naturally be grateful and loyal to him? It was thin reasoning, but as the acting head, Tang Guo Dong had got his way in the end. Tang Yi knew that everyone who heard the story would have assumed that Tang Yi, despite his young age, was Tang Guo Dong's trusted man. 

George was the only one who looked past that. Perhaps because he was the only one who knew about Zuo Hong Ye. 

There was a loud screech of brakes from the next street, and Tang Yi gave a start at the sound. He stared at George, trying to make George understand how serious this was. "Take your family and run. Don't trust anyone." There, that was a strong enough hint that there were traitors in his father's gang. Then Tang Yi had turned and ran away before George could ask him anything more.

Tang Yi shivered awake.

It was nearly noon, and the sharp smell of crushed grass made him wrinkle his nose. He'd been out jogging, and had only just sat down on a bench… He sat up, tugging at his collar, forgetting that he was only wearing a T-shirt and running shorts, not that heavy jacket, and had to resist the urge to cover his face with his hands to hide the urge to sob. That was the last time he had ever seen George. He and his family got out of Taipei, he'd heard, too wily to go anywhere that had ties to Xing Tian Meng, and had run to Guangzhou. Andy had gone too. 

(Tang-ye had been furious.)

Not that Tang Yi dared to search openly for them, even now. He figured that it was best to let the past lie in the past. Besides, what could he say to them now?

His therapist had said that he needed to come to terms with the fact that he could not have done anything more, and Tang Yi knew he was right. But that did not dampen the guilt.

There was 'blip' sound from his phone, and Tang Yi thumbed the message open on autopilot. 

A photo of Hong Ye with her arms around a giant plush bear met his eyes, with the words 'I'm getting this for you <3' accompanying it, and Tang Yi laughed, aware that he sounded a tad hysterical. At least she was safe. Safe and happy and doing her best to be an annoying little sister. 

He got to his feet and started to jog back, wondering if his self-imposed exercise regime had just been ruined by his dozing off on a park bench. It was just that he had found it so difficult to get to sleep at night. He'd make up for it later in the evening, he promised himself. He had to pass the fitness test, after all. 

Too bad Hong Ye was still on her school trip; he looked forward to dragging her out of bed every morning to go running with him once her school break started. He grinned to himself at the thought of her protests that she needed her beauty sleep. Her high school term ended two weeks later than his. Soon. 

At the door, he noticed an extra pair of shoes that looked familiar and an unwelcome suspicion rose in his mind. Well, that was annoying. He toed off his shoes with a scowl.

The middle-aged man in the living room looked up when Tang Yi shuffled past on his house slippers, while Tang Yi wondered if he could get by with ignoring him.

"Xiao Yi!" 

Busted. Tang Yi stopped in his tracks, crossing his arms in annoyance, ignoring the hopeful look in the visitor's eyes even as he studied him. In a painfully neat suit, and even holding a bunch of flowers in one hand. What a dope. "What," he said with an eye-roll.

His mother was the one who had called out and as she approached, she crossed her arms too, but she looked far more authoritative doing it. Whenever Tang Yi did it, he just looked like a sullen teenager – which he was, but that was beside the point. 

"Xiao Yi, I've spoken to you about this," his mother said.

Tang Yi heaved a breath of irritation, then faced Chen Wen Hao square on, unwilling to give him even an inch. "Dad," he said, the word heavy in his throat.

"Xiao Yi," the other man said. "I'm just here to see your mother-"

"Not me?" Tang Yi couldn't help interrupting, as snidely as he could. 

"Xiao Yi," his mother said in warning.

"No, no, don't scold him," Chen Wen Hao said, holding up a placating hand. "You know that we don't know each other all that well."

"That doesn't excuse his rudeness," his mother said. "And that's why you two need to talk."

Chen Wen Hao threw his mother a fond smile, a blatant attempt to get into her good graces. It was so mushy. "Li Zhen, it's fine. These things take time."

"Xiao Yi, go upstairs," his mother ordered.

Escape! Tang Yi made for the stairs.

"Wen Hao, you go with him."

_What?_

"But Li Zhen-"

"Go. Xiao Yi is going to tell you about the weekend trip he took with Hong Ye to Jiu Fen last month. And you can tell him all about the new restaurant you're opening. I've ordered takeout for lunch and will call you both once the food is here." His mother was still not inclined to do much cooking except for opening cans and reheating them. Tang Yi cooked sometimes, if his craving for home-cooked food was strong enough that all memories of learning to cook from Tang Guo Dong flew out of his mind. That was happening more and more, and Tang Yi was glad for it. 

"Ma-" It was not a whine.

"Go." She sounded just like all the times she was talking to her subordinates.

Madam's orders. Tang Yi turned towards the stairs to his room, sensing Chen Wen Hao following.

"I'm applying to the police academy," Tang Yi said once Chen Wen Hao had sat down on the sole chair in his room.

"Excuse me?" Chen Wen Hao looked at him. 

"I'm applying to the police academy," Tang Yi repeated with a roll of his eyes. He tried leaning against the doorway and crossing his arms, decided that he looked dumb that way, and sat down on his bed instead.

"I-I see."

Tang Yi studied the man who was his birth father. Try as he might, he couldn't see any resemblance between the two of them. Tang Yi thought that he definitely resembled his mother more. But Chen Wen Hao just seemed familiar, somehow. It was probably due to his incessant appearances over the last three years when he was trying to get into his mother's good graces, Tang Yi decided. "I'm going to be a cop like Ma."

"Oh."

"So you'd better clean up your act, all of it!" Tang Yi said in a rush. "Even the parts that you think Ma doesn't know. I'll be the first to arrest you if you give me any reason."

Chen Wen Hao was silent for a moment. "Does this mean that you are worried about me?"

Tang Yi could feel his face redden at being found to be so obvious. "It's just that you were in jail before," he said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Your sentence would be heavier if you're a repeat offender. And Ma would definitely cut all ties with you this time."

"Hm. Those are valid reasons," his father said. "But Xiao Yi, you don't need to worry. I wasn't lying when I told your mother that I have legitimised all my businesses. Even without dealing drugs or doing illegal things, it's still possible to make a decent living, you know."

"Oh." Tang Yi digested that, then added, "I wasn't worried about you. Not in the least."

"All right."

They were silent for a while, then Tang Yi asked the question that he'd wanted to ask for years, "What was _he_ like, when you knew him before?"

Long silence. "Oh, him." 

Tang Yi thought his father was not going to say anything, but then he came and sat next to Tang Yi by the window, which looked out to the small garden squeezed between this house and the next. It was a big change from the huge mansion that Tang Guo Dong had owned, where Tang Yi had spent his younger teenage years. "I'd thought we were brothers," his father finally said. "He was smart, always planning how to keep Xing Tian Meng growing and getting more powerful. I was the impulsive one, the idealistic one. Back then, he encouraged me whenever I talked about building a future with your mother. Maybe he thought that I would be content just being a family man, and leave Xing Tian Meng to him."

"Oh." 

"Now that I think about it, he must have been alarmed at finding out that Li Zhen was a cop."

"He knew that Ma was a cop?" 

"Not until later, when your mother tracked him down while she was trying to find me. I'd gone to jail for Xing Tian Meng, as you know, and there was your mum, pregnant and thinking that I'd abandoned her." Chen Wen Hao looked at him soberly. "She had no choice but to place you in an orphanage, you know. I had too many enemies in and outside of Xing Tian Meng, and she couldn't risk your birth being known and having you being harmed." 

"I knew that," Tang Yi retorted. And he did, especially knowing what he knew about Xing Tian Meng. Gangs were no places to be, and gang leaders were ruthless and didn't balk at using innocent children as pawns. (Especially Hong Ye, though she hadn't been harmed, thank goodness.) He'd run wild on the streets with Hong Ye, and that was dangerous enough, but things got really precarious when Tang Guo Dong took them in. 

Though they hadn't realised that at first. Tang Yi still blamed himself for that. 

"You don't blame your mother, do you?" Chen Wen Hao asked, his frown lines deepening with worry.

Tang Yi wanted to sneer. It was none of his business, actually. He opened his mouth to say so, but what actually came out was, "I'm changing my name," he said. "To Li." So there, he wanted to say to Chen Wen Hao. He didn't care that he was taking his mother's surname even though his birth father was right there. But for a moment, he glanced at Chen Wen warily, wondering what his reaction would be.

Chen Wen Hao's expression was complicated. Tang Yi braced himself for the question of why Tang Yi was not taking _his_ surname. 

But what came out was, "You want to be Li Tang Yi."

Tang Yi could feel his mouth fall open in surprise. Even his mother had been surprised at his decision to keep the 'Tang' part of his name, but Chen Wen Hao got it right immediately. "Yeah."

"No wonder you asked me about him," Chen Wen Hao said, and Tang Yi felt embarrassed to realise how transparent he was. 

"Ma asked if I wanted to be Li Yi (or Chen Yi), but…" He shook his head. "He used to call me Xiao Tang," he admitted. "And I'd call him Old Tang." Those were the few times that he felt Tang Guo Dong actually had some affection for him, instead of seeing him as a puppet to be manipulated.

"Hm. I called him that a few times too," Chen Wen Hao said. "He'd always protested, saying he wasn't that old." 

"Am I crazy?" Tang Yi asked, aware of the other man turning to him in surprise. "He was horrible. He sent Hong Ye away to threaten me. He made use of me. He killed anyone who went against him. He-he even sent you to jail. Why do I still want to use the name he gave me?" 

He wasn't aware that Chen Wen Hao was sitting close enough to wrap his arms around him in a hug.

"You're not crazy." His father's voice was pained, but calm. "You're you. You're Xiao Yi to Li Zhen and me, but you were also Tang Guo Dong's adopted son for three years. He was cruel, yes, but he took you in and helped you, even if he had his own motives for doing so." 

Tang Yi wondered why his father sounded so calm when talking about the one man who'd done him so much wrong.

"He's done many unforgivable things, but he's being punished now. You do not need to be bothered with him any further, but you don't have to deny that he was a part of your life, either."

"But-" Tang Yi glanced towards his desk. The application package for the police academy was there. He'd froze on the very first blank he had to fill: his name.

His father was patting him on the back, as though soothing a small child. "Xiao Yi, there's a lot I see in you that is admirable. Your courage. Your protectiveness. Your sense of justice. Your ability to remain calm in the most stressful of situations. These are the traits that you honed while you were with him – the things that make you, you. He probably didn't mean for you to grow in those directions, but-" Tang Yi could feel the shrug and laugh, "-he underestimated you."

Gently, Tang Yi pulled himself free, wanting to meet Chen Wen Hao in the face. "Really?"

His father had a wry look on his face. "I can testify that you got all of your stubbornness from your mother, though."

Tang Yi glared at him.

Chen Wen Hao just nodded. "So call yourself Li Tang Yi if you want. You've earned it."

/tbc


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, Chen Yi, I heard you were a gangster!" the other boy taunted, secure in the knowledge that he was accompanied by his friends, who were all standing with him with the same smirks on their faces. The school uniforms they were wearing had been modified (shirts loose and unbuttoned, long pants hanging on their hips to the point they were almost falling off) in an attempt to show how rebellious they were.

"Leave me alone," Tang Yi said, while he sneered on the inside, brushing away a speck of lint from his own shirt fastidiously. They were all supposed to be wearing school uniforms, and no amount of modification was going to make school uniforms cool. That was the point of school uniforms. You just made yourself look like more of a loser, the more you tried. If you were intent on rebellion, you _wouldn't_ wear a school uniform in the first place. 

Tang Yi was an all-or-nothing kind of rebel. Half-measures didn't interest him. Coolly ignoring the so-called school gang, he went past the basketball court where they were hanging out and headed towards the gates. 

"Are you ignoring me?" the boy who had just spoken rushed to block his way, his supporters close behind.

There didn't seem like a need to answer. Tang Yi side-stepped him and was about to go on his way, but someone shoved him from behind, nearly causing him to stumble. He regained his balance and turned around, keeping his expression neutral. He knew he looked more threatening this way. Sure, enough, the less courageous members of the group started to hang back while glancing at each other uncertainly. The leader didn't seem bothered. "I said," he got into Tang Yi's face, "Are you ignoring me?" 

"And I said, leave me alone," Tang Yi said.

"Why should I?" A finger jabbed at Tang Yi's chest, and Tang Yi decided that he would break this boy's finger if he did it again. "You're a gangster, aren't you? I overheard the discipline master talking about you to your form teacher," he went on. "That's why you transferred to our school!"

"Meaningless." Tang Yi turned and walked away. 

Again the group followed him. "Don't you dare walk away while I'm talking to you!" the boy yelled right in his face. Another jab of his finger at Tang Yi's chest.

Tang Yi went to work. 

***

"Sorry, Ma," Tang Yi offered.

Li Li Zhen aimed her best 'You fucked up again' glare at the school principal, who quailed but determinedly squared his shoulders. "Mrs Tang-" he began.

"I'm not married," Li Zhen said, and the principal turned red. "Please call me Madam Li."

"M-madam Li, your son broke a finger of one of our students. His parents have agreed not to press charges, but this is not a small matter.

I'm afraid this calls for a five-day suspension, starting from today. I will also require Tang Yi to write a letter to that student to apologise."

"He will do no such thing."

"Madam Li-"

"Tang Yi would never do anything like that without provocation," his mother insisted. 

The school principal frowned. "Provocation or not, Madam Li, it is wrong to resort to violence and cause harm to another. Tang Yi is seventeen. Next year he will be eighteen, and he'll be an adult then. He needs to learn that adults do not solve their problems by hurting another."

Despite himself, Tang Yi stiffened at that. The principal's words seemed unreal to someone whose entire adolescence had been made up of people who did precisely that. 

"I'll do it," Tang Yi said. 

"Ah Yi," his mother blurted, using the name for him that Tang Yi inwardly detested. 

"I'll do it," Tang Yi repeated. He ducked his head awkwardly at the principal. "I'm sorry, Mr Nan. You're right, I shouldn't have done it." 

Mr Nan seemed pleasantly surprised, and glanced at Tang Yi's mother as though in triumph. "I understand he and his friends had been bullying you," he said. "They will be disciplined for it as well."

Tang Yi shrugged. It didn't matter to him. What mattered to him was setting things right. 

"Can he write it at home?" his mother asked.

Mr Nan hesitated, then agreed. "Yes. Bring it over tomorrow."

At home, Tang Yi found himself sitting bonelessly at his desk, a blank piece of paper before him. His apology letter.

The truth was, he'd regretted it the moment he looked into the other boy's face and saw how pale and panicky it was. His companions, too, had looked like they were on the verge of fainting. They didn't know what Tang Yi was capable of. But Tang Yi had known very well what _he_ was capable of and exactly what to do (to these snivelling boys, at least) to get them to fear him. He hadn't done that. Instead, he'd ignored them, assuming that they'd leave him alone. He should have done something first. That knowledge, coupled with his willingness to do whatever was needed, made it an unfair fight. He didn't really need to break any fingers. But he did it so now he had to make things right. Like before…

***  
[Six months earlier]

Li Zhen had never considered herself a particularly demonstrative person, but she couldn't stop hugging Tang Yi. What was even more astonishing, he let her, instead of pushing her away as she had feared.

She was the worst mother in the world. What kind of mother abandoned her newborn infant at an orphanage, and then let him suffer neglect at the hands of his adopted father? What kind of mother - what more a mother who was a police officer - let her son end up being adopted by a gang boss?

"I'm so sorry," she murmured to him over and over again. "It'll be okay," she said, repeating the same inane phrase that her own mother had used to say to her, whenever she got into a scrape. "You'll be okay." It seemed like another world, that she could be so easily reassured that everything in the world was as it should be and that everyone she knew was safe and happy. 

She wasn't sure how long she sat there with him in the living room of Tang Guo Dong's mansion, where she and her team had stormed in just after midnight, after Tang Yi had given the signal. The hatred in Tang Guo Dong's face as he realised just who had betrayed him, and the ugly words he had spewed at Tang Yi (they had tried to get him to leave before the raid happened, but he refused to go) had affected even the hardened cops who had heard it all. At first, she'd thought Tang Yi was fine, ordering him to stay put while she directed the team, but when she came downstairs again, she realised that Tang Yi had not even moved a single step and was instead silently breaking apart in plain sight of all the cops milling into the mansion. That habitual stony expression of his had never seemed more fragile.

So she stayed with him while Yen Yen directed the teams to search the mansion, even the grounds, confiscating drugs and guns from basement storerooms and hidden compartments in the bedrooms and even in the goddamned kitchen cabinets. The secret accounts were, as Tang Yi reported, in Tang Guo Dong's safe, as were the files containing his blackmail materials. There were boxes upon boxes of incriminating documents being packed and wheeled out in trolleys. 

Finally Yen Yen came to them.

She looked up into the sympathetic eyes of her old and best friend. They'd known each other since the police academy, and had always confided in each other, conscious of the need to watch each other's back, being the very few female cadets in their day. "We've got all of it," Yen Yen said. "Plus the evidence you sent to me earlier, this could be enough to break up Xing Tian Meng forever."

She noticed Tang Yi's attention picking up a little at that. "All of it?" she asked.

Yen Yen scowled. "Not every last bit of it. I'm pretty sure the old fogies who've been sitting back and watching the money roll in already have their lawyers and their plea bargaining and get-out-of-jail strategies all mapped out. But other than that? Yes. We've got enough on Tang Guo Dong to put him inside for five hundred years, and his closest henchmen for nearly as long. Xing Tian Meng is officially down for the count."

Li Zhen nodded. It was more or less what she expected when she unveiled the plans for taking down Xing Tian Meng to her team, then to Yen Yen and her team, who then brought in Alan and his team. Gang-busting was a three-team job, at least if the gang was the size of Xing Tian Meng. "Did you find any trace of that adopted daughter – Hong Ye?" she asked.

Tang Yi gave a start at that.

"Yup," Yen Yen consulted her notepad. "Well, we've found where the regular payments from Tang Guo Dong's personal account were going, anyway. It's to a boarding school in Kyoto. Now that Tang Guo Dong's accounts are frozen, we're going to send someone to find her, and bring her back to Taiwan."

Li Zhen knew she wasn't imagining the slump of relief from Tang Yi. Shortly after Tang Yi and the girl were taken in by Tang Guo Dong, the girl had been sent away to school, supposedly for her own protection since Xing Tian Meng was a gang, but in reality as a hostage for Tang Yi's continued loyalty. She cursed Tang Guo Dong again inwardly for using children like pawns.

"Hong Ye, she-" Tang Yi finally pushed his head up from her embrace and looked up at her. He no longer looked so breakable, as though having a further task on hand was helping him to gather himself up again. "She-" he swallowed, "Ma, you're going to get Hong Ye back, right?"

She had to swallow twice before she could answer. "Damn right. If she's really there, we'll get her back, I promise."

He nodded, and she was overcome by how he seemed to trust her. 

Some of his agitation dissipated, before he went on, "But what's going to happen Hong Ye when she gets back?" he asked. "Her parents are dead. She went to Xing Tian Meng only because of me. It's my fault she was sent away."

Without further thought, she said, "She can come live with us." Then she smoothed his hair. "And it's not your fault," she said as firmly as she could, glancing at Yen Yen's face. "Don't blame yourself for the bad things that other people do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it's really confusing, this fic is being told in reverse chronological order, but there are sections that are set in the present or even in the future.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting parents.

Their usual meeting at the motel was interrupted. Normally Li Li Zhen looked forward to their meetings, because it was the only time she got to see Tang Yi. Like a wild beast who approached only out of curiosity or from whatever perceived advantage it would get, Tang Yi seemed to be slowly getting acclimatised to her presence. 

But this time, she had not reckoned about the interloper. Of course, she'd known that he'd been released from prison, and that he had gone into business. Whether that business was legitimate or merely a cover for illicit activities, it was no longer her priority any more. Her biggest concern these days was a defensive teenager who was constantly groomed to become a vicious gang boss, while trying to limit the damage his own hands wrought. But she ought to have known that he was looking for her - looking out for her too. 

She thought he'd hated her for... what she told him in prison, all those years ago.

Tang Yi seemed to realise that they were followed almost immediately, of course. Being tailed constantly by your adopted father's underlings made him preternally alert and before she could tell him to stand down (not that she had any certainty that he would obey him), he'd lured Chen Wen Hao into the motel room.

"So this is him," Tang Yi said, closing the door behind him and locking it, his eyes distrustful as he watched Chen Wen Hao cross the room rapidly to approach her, relief on his face once more to find her unharmed.

"You're fine," Chen Wen Hao said.

"What do you want?" she asked in the most hostile way she could, while she saw Tang Yi study them, as though trying to decipher what was between them. He was almost certainly going to find out. 

"I saw you enter the motel room with a-" he paused when he spotted Tang Yi. His brow furrowed and his mouth opened as though to ask who he was. His eyes were curious, and almost impersonal.

Tang Yi faced him with his best non-expression.

Once Chen Wen Hao had identified him, though, he stiffened in shock. "You're Tang Guo Dong's adopted son," he said. "Tang Yi." He glanced at her, and it was obvious how he barely stopped himself from demanding from her what was going on. 

Which was just as well, since Tang Yi had crossed his arms and was studying them with an outwardly scornful expression, but Li Zhen could tell that in fact he was just a hair away from turning away and leaving them. He was afraid, Li Li Zhen realised, of what Chen Wen Hao's reaction would be.

Chen Wen Hao, for his part, was rapidly adding two and two together, from Tang Yi's resentful yet familiar tone towards her, to the way he tried not to seem protective of her, but couldn't help himself. At least in this, he still knew her so well, despite her own habitual impassive expression.

"Li Zhen-" he turned to her, his words a question.

The look of horror and realisation on Chen Wen Hao's face would have made her laugh if it were under different circumstances. "Yes," she said to him.

Chen Wen Hao looked from her to Tang Yi, and back again. "I almost killed you," he said, "that time when you broke into my study." 

_What?_

"You mean, you tried, old man" Tang Yi scoffed, relaxing into the role of a wise-cracking, cynical teenager, before an identical look of horrified realisation spread over his face as well. He turned to her with an almost betrayed look. "Him?!" he pointed at Chen Wen Hao. "You. And _him_?" 

Despite herself, Li Zhen wanted to laugh at his tone. Instead, she just shrugged. "Yeah?" 

Tang Yi just stared at her, the look in his eyes much the same as the time he realised that he had a mother, before he glanced at Chen Wen Hao, his entire body language showing that he was trying to decide between whether to attack the man or to run away. The get pissed-off or flight instinct, Li Zhen had named it. She waited.

"Fuck." It was so eloquently expressed that Li Zhen couldn't even frown at him for the vulgarity.

Chen Wen Hao, on the other hand, was starting to smile despite himself. "Li Zhen," he began, his eyes lighting up. "What you said that time… wasn't true. You didn't-" he cut himself off. "Of course you didn't. I never thought for a moment-" He eyed Tang Yi greedily. "He's fifteen now?"

"I'm sixteen," said the teenager who wouldn't be that for another six months. "And if the two of you are going to have some kind of mushy reunion, I'm outta here." He suited action to the word, picking up his leather jacket from the bed and shrugging it on. Watching him, Li Zhen had to admit that her son was going to grow up to be a ridiculously handsome man one day. It was her job to ensure that he survived long enough to get to that. 

"I'll let you know where the next meeting is," Li Zhen said.

Tang Yi waved a hand as he walked towards the door. It was not always easy to gauge his mood: he could be coolly amused, or resentful, or (worst of all) desperate and hurting, his loneliness threatening to swallow him up. At the door, he turned around, looked at the both of them again, and said, "At least you didn't get involved with a total loser. I mean, it's Chen Wen Hao," he said, then eyed the man again. He seemed to be bracing himself: "See ya, old man," he said.

Chen Wen Hao reached out a hand as though to touch him, and looked disappointed when the door closed behind Tang Yi.

***

[Even earlier]

"Prove it," Tang Yi said. 

The woman had been following him for a few weeks now. She was good enough to be undetected by anyone else but him, and that was only because Tang Yi himself had more than sufficient experience in escaping detection. He was pretty sure that she was a cop, and it intrigued him a little. Most of the cops who paid him any attention at all only did so because of Tang-ye, assuming that he was just a mirror of Tang-ye since Tang-ye was his adopted father. But this woman seemed particularly focused on him, and now she was telling him something utterly ludicrous.

In answer, she looked around the hotel room he'd dragged her in.

"Only place bound to be safe from eavesdroppers," Tang Yi said, feeling impatient. Even if the men from Xing Tian Meng tracked him down here, they'd just assume that he went to a hotel for the usual reasons, and make the usual ribald comments. Tang Yi twitched in remembered annoyance. "'sides, I don't even like women that way," he announced, and looked at her up and down in his most insolent way. "And you're old enough to be my-"

She was pulling out a familiar-looking item from her backpack.

He grabbed her hand and shoved it away. "How did you get that?" he demanded, pulling the music box out and hugging it to his chest. He could have sworn he'd hidden it well under his bed, in his room at the mansion.

She hadn't resisted when he grabbed the music box, only pushing the backpack to one side before sitting down. "Look carefully," she said. "Is it really yours?"

Frowning, puzzled as to why she seemed so calm, Tang Yi looked down at the object in his hands, then immediately glared at her. "Why do you have something that's-"

Except for the lack of scratches, it was identical to his. He'd tried his best, but it wasn't easy to keep an object like that in perfect condition while you were homeless. So his music box had picked up a few dings and scratches, while this was pristine.

"They come in a pair," she said, "and were really popular when we were dating."

"'We'?"

"When he disappeared, he left his to me. When I sent you to the orphanage, I asked them to give mine to you." 

Tang Yi found himself sitting down on the bed. No one else, other than his adopted mother who had given him the music box, knew that it was from his birth mother. Even his adopted father thought it was just something that his wife bought on a whim one day to give to Tang Yi. It was the sole reason he had never tried to take it from Tang Yi. "Fuck." 

The woman began talking.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," he said when she was done, for the sake of seeing her react but his own voice had a telling wobble at the end. He hugged his arms around himself, turning to one side, yet unable to resist wanting to look at her again, as though trying to find some visible evidence that they were indeed...connected as she claimed.

"Your adopted parents were ____ and ____," she said. "They named you Chen Yi." She looked down for a second. "I guess you kept Yi when you changed your name."

A few people in Xing Tian Meng might have remembered his original name, but he hadn't talked about his adopted parents to anyone, much less mention their names. Hell, Tang Yi thought, he was pretty sure he hadn't even mentioned that he was adopted at all. "How did you know all that?" he demanded. "You checked up on me, right? You talked to him."

Li Lizhen's expression was stricken, but determined. "Yes. But not in the way you think. I talked to him soon after you ran away. You see, I knew exactly whom to look for, because I knew who had adopted you. Even Tang Guo Dong, with all his contacts, legal and otherwise, didn't know at first."

"'At first'?" The ball dropped abruptly. The way Tang-ye had changed in the way he treated him. The way he no longer shielded Tang Yi from the worst excesses that Xing Tian Meng committed on a regular basis. It was not because he was old enough to do more. It was because Tang Guo Dong wanted to- 

His sudden silence had Li Lizhen approaching, close enough to touch, and her warm presence made his head spin. "How?"

"One possibility: your musical box," Li Lizhen said.

He glanced at her, taking in her wan smile. "What?"

A touch on his arm, light as a whisper. "There's a copy of your birth certificate hidden in it."

Tang Yi inhaled with a gasp, as though that was the only way he could breathe. 

"I'm listed as your mother. Your father's name was not stated, but I named you as Li Chen. He guessed the rest."

Tang Yi stood up and paced the room, his thoughts running into different directions, but they were all galloping, telling him that he was going to turn into Tang Guo Dong, version 2, or- he turned around. "I'll help."


End file.
